As many texelplus members will already be aware there are several enhancements to the Society’s texelplus service this year; the first and most important of which is the introduction of the Society’s new iTexel database, says Society chief executive John Yates.
“The new cloud-based database is being been rolled out over a 15-month period between April 2019 and June 2020. With further enhancements to benefit member services expected in future.”
On a practical level texelplus members will need to use iTexel for all data submission this year, starting with uploading lambing data from their flocks. This needs to be done before eight-week weights can be added.
“When entering your lambs’ eight-week weights you will be required to accept the terms and conditions of the texelplus service. The weight data capture screen enabling the recording of eight-week weights will be available from late April along with the Flock Admin screen where you will be able to update the status of your animals and birth notify or register any animals already entered into the database.
“In addition, as you will understand, due to government social distancing advice, AHDB is not intending to provide an ultrasound scanning service this summer and has withdrawn all AHDB staff from farm visits. I expect private ultrasound providers will have made the same decision and you should contact your provider for further details.”
As such, members are asked to provide scan weight information to the Society, again this will be easily carried out via the iTexel weight recording screen, explains Mr Yates. “The advice is to weigh your lambs between 18 and 21 weeks of age. For early February lambing flocks this will be in the first to third weeks of June.
“The last date for data submission for inclusion within the first evaluation available from iTexel is 15thJune.”
Likewise, SRUC have also suspended their CT Scanning services due to Covid-19 restrictions. Additionally, and for the same reasons, the Society took the decision in March not to collect mastitis and footrot data this year but is able to double up next year to ensure records are maintained, he says.
Evaluation flock reports and publishing of EBVs
Breeders will notice the new style layout of EBVs on iTexel, giving Texel breeders and their customers fingertip access by smartphone to easy-to-decipher breeding values and rankings on the iTexel animal search. The iTexel breeder search also clearly identifies all participating texelplus breeders with the texelplus logo.
Impact of the Society’s high profile and industry leading R&D programme
“Importantly, the significant investment and vision the Society has with breed development and its R&D programme, will see the launch of new, innovative and commercially derived EBVs.
“These will include EBVs for VIA traits, with slaughter lamb derived data supporting their creation, having worked closely with commercial producers and large-scale processors. Genomic breeding values will also be available for mastitis and footrot developed over five years of activity with some texelplus flocks and SRUC leading to the creation of the Society’s Phenotype Farm structure,” adds Mr Yates.
“All of this is supported by the Society’s unique genomic reference population which now has more than 10,000 genotypes and a significant volume of hard-to-measure phenotypic data fuelling the evaluations.
“The introduction of these novel breeding values and technology places the Society and texelplus breeders in a progressive position. The Texel Society is the first in the UK to provide its breeders with routine genomic breeding values.”
Future developments
To sustain VIA EBVs the Society contracts with commercial producers to produce slaughter lambs from known sires, explains Mr Yates. “This allows a central progeny test structure at a pilot level as part of the exploitation of the Society’s VIA research project. The Society hopes to expand this scheme to increase the number of slaughter lambs generated from known sires over the coming years.”
And, finally, once normal service can be resumed following the relaxation of the Covid-19 restrictions, the Society through its Breed Development committee has a host of new developments that it is considering, more information will follow later in the year.
Key actions and dates for 2020
| Action | When | How |
| Ensure you can access iTexel | Now | Go to www.itexel.ukand log in |
| Birth Notify lambs | Now | On iTexel |
| Check your 2020 lambs are added correctly | End of April | View and edit your flock list on iTexel in “Flock Admin” |
| Add eight-week weights | End of April | Weight entry functionality available on iTexel |
| Add scan weights (18-21 weeks of age) | June onwards | |
| Flock reports available | End of June | via iTexel.uk |
